Alongside yesterday’s iPad Air reveal, Apple also announced the long-awaited Retina iPad Mini. Apple’s smaller iPad no suffers in comparisons to the higher resolution displays on much cheaper tablets like the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HDX. Alongside the new display, Apple have also seen fit to throw in the A7 chip first seen in the iPhone 5S and soon also finding its way into the iPad Air. In fact, spec for spec the Retina Mini is virtually identical to its bigger brother, save for the smaller screen.
Despite this spec parity, it’s still manages to be $100 cheaper at $399 for the 16GB version. As usual every doubling in capacity will set you back an additional $100, with 3G/LTE an additional $130.
Apple have also decided to keep the original Mini around and have even reduced the price by a whole $30. At $299 I can’t help but feel that the original is looking slightly long in the tooth, and fairly poor value compared to both the Retina and also the much improved 2013 Nexus 7. That extra $100 is buying you a much better display and also some major future proofing in terms of performance and updates.
The Retina Mini launches sometime in November while the Air has been given a 1 November release date.
The only question now is whether to go for the Retina Mini or the new slimmed down Air. Talk about first world problems!